Last weekend, I was at Seoul, South Korea with the Philippine contingent for the Ragnarok World Championships 2011. The 1-day event gathering was held Saturday, October 15, 2011 at the AX Hall, Gwangjang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. In a nutshell, 5 out the 7 players were denied travel VISAs by the South Korean Embassy in Manila.

We already came out with the official statement regarding the fate of the Philippine Team. Truly a sad day for our country since this was the first time that our team was denied travel documents for participating in the RWC. What’s even more sad was the fact that we really felt that this team was one of the best and getting that elusive RWC crown for our country could have been this year. I feel sorry for the series of unfortunate events and I totally feel sorry for Team Naked Nanaman, who were all excited to go to Seoul and prove to everyone how Pinoys play Ragnarok!

I am not one to say that “there was nothing we could do”. Here are the facts, we submitted all the documents and requirements to the embassy since September. PlayWeb/Level Up has no control on when the embassy releases the visas or how fast (or how slow) their process is. In fact, we have done everything humanly possible to explain to the embassy that the boys are part of a seven-man team and the fact that they approved 2 of their team mates means that they understood that a team-vs-team game of 7 needs an entire team to compete.

Our partners, Gravity Inc, developers of Ragnarok, and host of the RWC 2011 also wer calling the embassy to convince them and explain to them our position. We also tried to call some of our contacts to help the boys with their Visas up to the very last minute. Our managers and staff stayed with the boys to the last minute. Sadly, the embassy would not reverse their decision even if they did manage to approve Visas of some pRO tourist players. In short, I don’t know their basis for their decision. It all remains a mystery but I respect it nonetheless.

I am not blaming anyone. I just wanted to explain our side of the story since it pains me and my co-workers to see a lot of misguided people on Facebook and the forums bash us like it’s all our fault. Don’t you just hate it when people conclude things AS IF THEY KNEW all there is to know about the situation? That’s one thing I hate about the Internet. The Internet does NOT make you right. You just have access to information and if you don’t know the entire story, don’t pretend you do.

That’s kinda cool, eh? Let me repeat that “You don’t know everything, you just have Internet access.”

In the spirit of sportsmanship, we managed to talk with the tournament committee for RWC 2011 and they allowed us to field a team (minimum of 5) to at least fight. The 2 members of Team Philippines asked not to be included in this one. Seeing the ordeal that they went through, we respected that and I made the call to just field in 5 Filipinos to play so we could respect the host country and the event. Of course, we knew that we couldn’t win, but we wouldn’t want to “destroy the party” or the fun atmosphere of the event either.

Manila was the first city outside of Seoul to host an RWC event in 2008 and we wanted to show everyone, to all the RWC countries, to our hosts, and to all the foreign players, that we would carry our flag as proud as we could with our chins up high, as true Filipinos.

And yes, we didn’t win.

We got eliminated by Korea. Thailand went on to wear the 2011 crown defeating Brazil (a Level Up team too)

We could have complained, we could have whined, and being angry was a normal reaction, right?

Wrong.

For me, that’s setting a wrong example, that’s painting a picture of a Filipino which I personally DO NOT want the world to see. What good would whining or bitching about it do? What’s done is done. I respect the decision of their consulate. They already did it. It was final. Sure it was sad, but dousing gasoline on fire will not do the world any good. I’ve been a Community Manager for far too many years to have seen the worst of the worst. And believe me, it’s not a good memory.

A lot of players will not be happy by some of our decisions regarding the unfortunate series of events. We’re not here to please EVERYONE. That’s an impossible task.

The notion of doing what was right so that everyone would respect us a pRO players, as professionals, and as Filipinos will be enough for me and for the company I represent.

It’s not just about a game, it’s national pride.

Next year will be a different story. I promise.

‘Rok On!

PS. I would like to congratulate Team Level Up Brazil for their highest finish (1st runner up) to date. It’s still a Level Up! team that’s there on top. Woot! Congrats, my brothers! I’d also like to thank our partners in Gravity, everyone in our office who did all they could to help the boys with their visas and of course, to Team Naked Nanaman, for their patience and will. Thank you.